A blog for the United States branch of the global Centre for Fortean Zoology

At the beginning of the 21st Century monsters still roam the remote, and sometimes not so remote, corners of our planet. It is our job to search for them. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is - we believe - the largest professional, scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals. Since 1992 the CFZ has carried out an unparalleled programme of research and investigation all over the world. Since 2009 we have been running the increasingly popular CFZ Blog Network, and although there has been an American branch of the CFZ for over ten years now, it is only now that it has a dedicated blog.

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

1965: BBC TV interviews a London University professor who
claims he has perfected a technology he called "smell-o-vision,"
allowing TV viewers to smell aromas produced in the television studio. He
demonstrates by placing coffee beans and onions into the smell-o-vision machine
and asks viewers to report by noon whether they smell anything. Many viewers
phone in affirmative results, some claiming the onions made their eyes water.

Have you ever wondered if there could be in truth in the long-held belief that we share the planet with beings of another order, to which our ancestors gave the term Fairies? This book investigates the actual evidence for fairies including Goblins, Gnomes, Leprechauns, Giants, Tiny Flying Fairies, Ogres and Weird Creaturesw hard to categorize. Mothman even gets a look in. Even if the notion of actual fairies seems too preposterous to harbor, the book contains a wealth of folklore concerning the Otherworld and endeavors to figure out where the Otherworld might be.Available from the usual outlets including Amazon: $19.99Price in UK: £11.99

Let us wander up to Canada now, where we will find Muskrat Lake, near Cobden, Ontario, tenanted, it is said, by a monster bearing the nickname 'Hapyxelor'. This name was bestowed on it by D. Humphreys, who claims to have seen it in 1968. It had a large head with a single tooth depending from the upper jaw. It was of a silver-green coloration and it had a pair of flippers. He estimated the body at 24' at first, but then said it might have been considerably shorter.A trio consisting of husband, wife and daughter, who wisheed to remain anonymous saw it in 1976. It kept in their view for almost ten minutes. Its head was large, but it had virtually no neck. A. Childerhorse and J. Hoard claimed to have seen it in the same year. Sonar tracings of possibly two underwater creatures were made in 1988.

Is this the monster?

Sightings of this creature in all have been reported since about 1916.

The Tuchone Indians in the Yukon spoke in their legends of this beast said to leave in the mountains east of Frenchman's Lake. It is supposed to eat beavers, but may have only been devouring the vegetable matter of their lodges. The Indians have been shown pictures of the supposedly extinct ground sloth and have commented on the resemblance. Could there be some of them still frolicking around Northern Canada?

Lake Hodges lies in California, 31 miles north of San Diego, which city owns it, as it is both lake and reservoir. The lake is on the san Dieguito River. In 1916 the Lake Hodges Project was begun. Indians warned those in authority that there was a monster in the lake. As the years passed, whites claimed to have seen the creature too. One claimed to have discerned a lizard-like head. It was decided to set a trap for the monster in 1932. A sea-lion was placed in a cage was placed in the water. The sea-lion disapppeared, but no monster was trapped. In 1956 the lake was poisoned to get rid of its fish population. Then it was restocked. However, the monster, if it existed, may not have been killed by the poison, for in 1966 picnickers spotted a strange creature in the lake and a photograph of a hump was taken.

Thursday, 26 March 2015

1513: Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Léon
"discovers" Florida and starts another round of "New World"
genocide while seeking the mythical Fountain of Youth. Natives fatally wound
him eight years later, during a second campaign of enslavement and
exploitation, but not before he founds future America's oldest recognized city
at San Augustine, site of two religious massacres in 1565 and of white-on-black
race riots 100 years later.

What’s that sound? It may not sound, no pun intended, like a scary question, but sometimes that is the most terrifying thing a person could ask. When traveling, camping, or walking through the woods, not knowing what animals are making what sounds can be nerve wrenching. And it’s a lot harder than you might think in order to get a grip on just what animals make what kind of sound. For example, Koala Bears are many people’s favorite animals, and if you asked them to tell you a bit about them many people will give detailed, if not a bit standard, answers. They; live in Australia, the eat Eucalyptus leaves, the babies are often carried on their mothers' back and not in their pouches, and they are not really bears. But try asking them what kind of sounds they make. Most people would probably turn their heads in confusion. The shocking truth is, one of the Koala’s vocalization is a loud growl that sounds almost like a lion roar. Surprising coming from such a soft and fuzzy appearance, but that’s one of the wonders of nature.

Anyway, the subject of today will be alleged Bigfoot vocalizations and noises. Specifically, we will talk about a phenomena know as Samurai Chatter. We will go in- depth about that vocalization, its name origin, and what if any merit it has for serious Sasquatch research, but let’s first talk about some of the other reported Sasquatch vocalizations. We will for the sake of this article, not be covering things like wood knocking and rock throwing, as those may be forms of communication and expression, but we will save this time for vocal expressions

First let’s talk about Whoops. The word whoop is an onomatopoeia. An onomatopoeia is a word that is pronounced the same way it is spelled, the word onomatopoeia itself is an onomatopoeia. Sound the sound when you here it would be as follows, whoooop. Whoops are also, more often than not, heard in a string of successions. Whoops are a commonly heard and sometimes recorded noise that has over the years been associated with Bigfoot and his alleged vocalizations. Some famous recorded whoops that I have listened to include; whoops recorded in Estacada, OR in 1972, a very famous (or often used) example recorded in California in 1974 (though I have been unable to find where in that state they were allegedly recorded), and series of loud and quit angry sounding whoop/screams recorded in Puyallup, WA in 1993.

Yet, I personally, can’t find any reports of anybody actually seeing a Bigfoot in the physical process of making such a call, though if you know of one, please let me know. So the question is why do people associate these with Bigfoot? Well there are a few reasons.

One is we have a very good set of reference data collected on the varied and uniqe calls of pretty much all the known native wildlife in most of the USA and Canada, and a traditional whoooop isn’t in the range of these creatures. True some, like elk, can make a bleating sound that does bear a pseudo resemblance to a whoop, but if you know what to listen for there is a huge difference. Second, whoops are known and quite common primate vocalization. If you talk to a great ape researcher or go to the zoo, you’ll know that primates of all sizes and types use this kind of vocalization to communicate with each other. Going along the lines of assumption that Bigfoot, if it is real, is some kind of large primate, it is reasonable to assume that a whoop would be in its arsenal of calls. And third, in order to produce a whoooop you would need special kind of lips to make those sound clusters. Lips that say, primates, have.

Another vocalization sometimes reported and in a few cases recorded are screams. When I say screams, I mean the loud angry kind that even at your angriest, it would be hard to make something so terrifying. One such case was recorded in 1979 Washington State. These can sometimes, as previously stated, be in juncture or after a whoop. Why would they make such a cry? Maybe due to some emotional state, such as anger or sorrow. Again, all know primates, are capable of feeling such emotions, why not Bigfoot?

Another vocalization that is often heard is a howl or a moan. These differ from the two above mentioned vocalizations in their tone, pitch, and range. They sound, as one would imagine, like a moan or howl a person or ape might make, only at a much high decibel. Some famous recordings include; the famous Columbiana County calls which were recorded just above Wellsville, Ohio, in 1994, another being a very similar type of howl recorded in a wood portion of Mississippi in December, 2004, near a military base. The 1994 howls are of particular interest because they have been, or maybe I should say, attempted to be, fully analyzed by Dr. Joe Fox, a biologist at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. After isolating the sound, recording the decibels, and comparing it to dozens of well documented recordings of known animals, he concluded, that the sounds were from an organic creature, and unlike any of the animals known to inhabit North America. This is certainly a very interesting result indeed and goes a long way to hopefully validating a separate species one day after further study and testing.

Which now brings us to our main topic of discussion, Samurai Chatter. Does that name sound a bit ridicules? I know it does for me. When I first learned about these alleged Bigfoot vocalizations I thought for sure, by name alone, they must be a parody or a hoax taken way out of context, like so many unfortunately are. However, the sounds do in face have a long history and legacy behind them. This of course, has not come without controversy, but will we try and give these vocalizations a fair shot. First let’s go over the history of these alleged calls for all those out there who have never heard of them before.

In the late 1970’s two friends Al Berry and Ron Morehead made a series of recordings high up in the isolated Sierra Nevada Mountains, in Eastern California. The two men where all alone at the time and in addition to the recordings they claimed to have found 18 inch footprints and had a very brief possible sighting, but it’s the recordings we are here for today. In total, there are several hours of sounds recorded that night, some of which can be heard, in small portions, on various internet sights. However, the men, I think specifically Ron Morehead, have a copyright of the sounds, and full transcripts of the recordings are available for purchase from their official website, as well as several self written books and other merchandise. More on that aspect later.

Let’s talk briefly about why they have been dubbed the ‘Samurai Calls’ or ‘Samurai Chatter’. The sounds, stead of whoops, howls, screams, are really another form of known animal vocalization sound structured, organized, and dare I say it, like actual language. They sound something like the dubbed voiceover work on a lot of those older Japanese Samurai action films. One rumor I heard was that the name was inspired by a character that the legendary comedian John Belushi did on Saturday Night Live. That may just be a rumor, but let me tell you once you have that idea of “Samurai” in your head, it’s hard to imagine anything but a badly dubbed Japanese man making those sounds form that point on. At least it is for me.

Anyway, the recording: the free samples I have been able to listen to and study, have different portions to them. One part involves one of the alleged creatures making a noise, then a human, either Al or Ron, mimicking the same type of sound in order to get a response. It does answer back in what seems to be a coherent response. Other portions involve long periods of the creature(s?) vocalizing to himself or others.

I must say that these sounds always have caused a problem for me. Like I said, when I first heard about them and listened to portions of them for the first time, my immediate reaction was, “This is a joke, right?” And it’s not just me. Over the years I have done many reports in college and for local events on Cryptids and Bigfoot evidence and in addition to talking I have shown brief film clips of alleged cryptids, photos, and where available sound clips. I have played several reported Bigfoot calls over the years (like several different whoops and the 1994 howl) and have people been interested, excited, and in a few cases been a bit scared by some of them. Then just to see what their reactions will be, I have, in a few of these events, played some of the Samurai Chatter. After giving a brief description of the back ground I hit play, and every time, without fail, the crowds break into laughter and cries of “fake!”

So with that in mind, I wanted to dig a bit deeper and see if I could find more information on these strange, if not unusual, recordings. At first, I couldn’t find much outside of the same reused back story and info. What was troubling me was how little, if any, serious scientific analyzes of these sounds there were. It seemed like no one, skeptic or believer, was taking them too seriously (maybe the name has something to do with it?) Well eventually I did find some actually interesting stuffI did find an interview with Ron Morehead who, claimed that he had the recordings sent to the University of Wyoming for analysis. This was a promising start. He said that “they” determined that the sounds were not prerecorded nor altered in an editing or post-production kind of way. That means what was recorded was recorded live at the time. Admittedly, this is promising, but not without some big questions and potential problems.

First, Mr. Morehead never specifies who at the University he got to analyze the recordings, and a search of record and projects didn’t turn up anything that I could find. Second, just because the sounds were not added in later by a machine or edited to sound a certain way, it does not mean that they couldn’t have been faked on the spot. After all, the analysis does not say what made the sound, if it compared to any other animal, or if it is outside the range of a person. If the study did have those results I could not find them, nor does Mr. Morehead state them in the interview I found. These facts all have me a bit on edge.

Doing a bit more research I did find that someone had actually put a lot of time into this case, that man is R. Scott Nelson. Mr. Nelson was a crypto linguist with the US military who specialized in foreign languages and code breaking. The story starts with his son wanting to do a school report on Bigfoot. Like a good father, he was helping his son do research when they came across the Samurai Sounds. Mr. Nelson say he was blown away instantly, and announced that it was definitely language. He then spent two years studying the sounds and communicating with Ron Morehead, and at the 2010 Boggy Depot Bigfoot Conference held in Atoka, Oklahoma, he announced his findings. I will not relay everything, but he outlaid a set of systems he believed enabled him to decode their “language.” I will post a link that has the full “alphabet” and conclusions.I must say, this is very detailed and seems like an honest effort to do serious research. However, two things seem a bit odd. One is, despite all the effort I can't find any peer review on his work. That’s a big thing that goes a long way in the scientific community, because it goes a long way towards validation. Second, is it seems a bit weird, to me at least, that you can deduce an entire new language from just a few, albeit lengthy, recordings. That being said, I’m not a linguistic expert so that may be a valid interpretation of the data.

There are a few other things that also have me concerned about these vocalizations too. One is, that I found very few reports, outside of Al and Ron’s that mention these kind of vocalizations. I have seen a few, but these usually don’t have specific mentions of the “Samurai Chatter”. That mostly comes from the reporters' interpretation of what the witness says they heard.

Second, if these recordings are so significant, as to indicate a possible language, why isn’t there more effort put in by more researchers into studying this? Maybe it’s the negative reputation that comes with a name like “Samurai Chatter”. However, I have another idea.

The idea that these sounds may in fact be a language all its own is very radical for most. After all, many primates have various vocal and non-vocal forms of communication. Yet, even dedicated primate researchers are reluctant to say that they possess a language, at least in the way we us that term. Over the years different people have used different sets of standards to distinguish humans from animals. The “mirror test” is one such example. This test involves holding up a mirror and seeing if the animal recognizes that he is not looking at another of his kind, but at his own reflection. But one of the most cited of these “tests” is the language test, and we are not talking about a parrot mimicking words, but having a complex and detailed language all its own.

If Bigfoot exists and they do have a complex language this is truly groundbreaking, as it would cause many to redefine what separates us from the animals and indeed what it means to be ‘human’. This, to say the least, is a very big leap for people to make. Not only are they asking you to accept that a large ape species exists undetected, but it does what, officially, only we can: speak.

So here we are at the end of the day and what do we have? A complex issue with no real answer. As a personal input, I must say I’m still not convinced that the sounds recorded represent a totally new and unique language. In fact a part of me is still bit concerned about the validity of the recordings, if only for the fact that not much outside research has been done on it and the two original recorders, especially Mr. Morehead, seem determined to make a buck off them at every turn. Yet maybe, there is something to these strange sounds. After all, if there is one thing I know for sure it is that, no matter how far we progress and what we learn, there will always be strange unexplained noises in the night.

This is Prudence, Jonathan Downes' dog. For those of you who have never dropped in to the Centre for Fortean Zoology, we thought a picture of Prudence would add a cosy touch. Prudence is usually to be found on Jonathan Downes' sofa. She is a bulldog/boxer cross and is extremely difficult to remove from Jonathan Downes' sofa, should you wish to sit down. Believe me I've tried.

Two animals for whom scientists had failed to find a niche in the evolutionary tree, both of whose fossils had been collected by Darwin, have been found a place in that dendrous structure. Darwin had described the Macrauchenia and the Toxodon as the strangest animals whose fossils he had found.

This report deals with a creature supposedly seen in the vicinity of Pulborough, Sussex, England. It was apparently observed about 1900. I used to live in the area, but obviously I wasn't alive at the time.

These days, the term lindorm or one of its cognates is used for any large serpent in Scandinavia. However, it is more specifically based on a particular kind of serpent in early writings. Erik Pontoppidan (1698-1764) thought they were born on land, but then entered the sea to become sea-serpents. G.O. Hylten-Cavallius thought there might be an actual creature behind the legend and in 1885 wrote that they were 10'-20' long. Many witnesses claimed to have seen them and fights between men and lindorms were recorded in the 19th Century. A man named Nilsson fought a lindorm, he alleged, in Ulvehult Forest in 1826. He said it had a mane of scales. Magnus Bergström said he killed one in 1869 There was another alleged killing in Husaby Forest in 1878. There were quite a number of witness reports. In Smaland, Sweden, there seems to have been a considerable number.These days, the lindorm is regarded as mythical, but, in the light of witness accounts, it would be unwise to dismiss its former and possibly present existence out of hand.

An interesting account based on historical sources of a boggart or, what is known as a booger in the states, on the Fylde coast of Lancashire, England. This coast, by the way, is freezing and a sojourn there is etched in my memory.

Sunday, 22 March 2015

1976: Police officers Edward Johnson and Dan Murphy, on
night patrol in Mill Valley, California, hear "growling and
screaming" in some shrubbery, then see a "large, dark-colored
thing" walking upright before it scales an 8-foot wall beside the highway.
The next day, officers find a dead deer near the site.

Let us away to bonny Scotland, home of misty glens and golf. The Scots did not invent the bagpipes, by the way. They were invented in Iraq. We go to the region of East Kilbride, around which there have been a number of reports of a humanoid monster. This is in no way your average bigfoot-type, but rather a creature with bulbous eyes, blue skin and yellow patches on its legs and throat. One wonders if this creature is the result of genetic engineering. If strange hybrids are being produced in laboratories, it is not incredible that the odd one should manage to escape. Should you be holidaying in Scotland and encounter this creature, my advice would be to give it a wide berth.

Strange things seem to have been on the wing in Chile in 2004. Near Arica the de la Torre family, driving at night, encountered dog-faced kangaroo like creatures that could fly. Meanwhile two dog-faced winged creatures attacked one Juan Acuna in the same year. One of the beasts was large, the other small. They were very strong. Local official Ricardo Encins said Acuna's wounds were genuine.Were these the same kind of animal? The description of the animals that attacked Acuna did not include kangaroolity, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. Could these creatures be in any way related to the Jersey Devil? I found no mention of horns. We shall just have to await further reports of such creatures.

Saturday, 21 March 2015

1876: Missionary Matthew Strong and other passengers aboard
the steamship Hydaspes, en route from Bombay to Aden, see what they
believe to be a mass of tangled seaweed, 20 to 30 feet long and 10 feet wide,
floating partially submerged. As their ship draws nearer, the
"seaweed" lifts a huge black head "in shape something like a
monstrous toad," with eyes three feet apart ad four to five inches in
diameter. Next, the head rose 30 or 40 feet above the ship's railing before it
submerged and vanished.

Thursday, 19 March 2015

2012: Sixty-two years and one day after the death of author
Edgar Rice Burroughs, the film John Carter, based on his Martian series
of novels, logs one of the biggest losses in film history. Disney Studios
records a $200 million writedown on the cinematic bomb.